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Published work

43 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

When to Vote, When to Rewrite: Disagreement-Guided Strategy Routing for Test-Time Scaling

Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) achieve strong performance on mathematical reasoning tasks but remain unreliable on challenging instances. Existing test-time scaling methods, such as repeated sampling, self-correction, and tree search, improve performance at the cost of increased computation, yet often exhibit diminishing returns on hard problems. We observe that output disagreement is strongly correlated with instance difficulty and prediction correctness, providing a useful signal for guiding instance-level strategy selection at test time. Based on this insight, we propose a training-free framework that formulates test-time scaling as an instance-level routing problem, rather than allocating more computation within a single strategy, dynamically selecting among different scaling strategies based on output disagreement. The framework applies lightweight resolution for consistent cases, majority voting for moderate disagreement, and rewriting-based reformulation for highly ambiguous instances. Experiments on seven mathematical benchmarks and three models show that our method improves accuracy by 3% - 7% while reducing sampling cost compared to existing approaches.

preprint2025arXiv

Ultrahigh-Energy Gamma-ray Emission Associated with Black Hole-Jet Systems

Black holes (BH), one of the most intriguing objects in the universe, can manifest themselves through electromagnetic radiation initiated by the accretion flow. Some stellar-mass BHs drive relativistic jets when accreting matter from their companion stars, forming microquasars. Non-thermal emission from the radio to tera-electronvolt (TeV) gamma-ray band has been observed from microquasars, indicating the acceleration of relativistic particles. Here we report detection of four microquasars (SS 433, V4641 Sgr, GRS 1915+105, MAXI J1820+070) of spectrum extending to the ultrahigh-energy (UHE; photon energy $E>100$ TeV) band and one microquasar (Cygnus X-1) of spectrum approaching 100 TeV, using the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). Notably, the total emission associated with SS 433 cannot be interpreted with a single leptonic component. In the UHE band, its emission is in spatial coincidence with a giant atomic cloud, which is consistent with a hadronic origin. An elongated source is discovered from V4641 Sgr with the spectrum continuing up to 800 TeV. The detection of UHE gamma rays demonstrates that accreting BHs and their environments can operate as extremely efficient accelerators of particles out of 1 peta-electronvolt (PeV), suggesting microquasars to be important contributors to Galactic cosmic rays especially around the `knee' region.

preprint2022arXiv

An Extended Halo-based Group/Cluster finder: application to the DESI legacy imaging surveys DR8

We extend the halo-based group finder developed by \citet[][]{Yang2005a} to use data {\it simultaneously} with either photometric or spectroscopic redshifts. A mock galaxy redshift survey constructed from a high-resolution N-body simulation is used to evaluate the performance of this extended group finder. For galaxies with magnitude ${\rm z\le 21}$ and redshift $0<z\le 1.0$ in the DESI legacy imaging surveys (the Legacy Surveys), our group finder successfully identifies more than 60\% of the members in about $90\%$ of halos with mass $\ga 10^{12.5}\msunh$. Detected groups with mass $\ga 10^{12.0}\msunh$ have a purity (the fraction of true groups) greater than 90\%. The halo mass assigned to each group has an uncertainty of about 0.2 dex at the high mass end $\ga 10^{13.5}\msunh$ and 0.40 dex at the low mass end. Groups with more than 10 members have a redshift accuracy of $\sim 0.008$. We apply this group finder to the Legacy Surveys DR8 and find 5.2 Million groups with at least 3 members. About 387,000 of these groups have at least 10 members. The resulting catalog containing 3D coordinates, richness, halo masses, and total group luminosities, is made publicly available.

preprint2022arXiv

ChiQA: A Large Scale Image-based Real-World Question Answering Dataset for Multi-Modal Understanding

Visual question answering is an important task in both natural language and vision understanding. However, in most of the public visual question answering datasets such as VQA, CLEVR, the questions are human generated that specific to the given image, such as `What color are her eyes?'. The human generated crowdsourcing questions are relatively simple and sometimes have the bias toward certain entities or attributes. In this paper, we introduce a new question answering dataset based on image-ChiQA. It contains the real-world queries issued by internet users, combined with several related open-domain images. The system should determine whether the image could answer the question or not. Different from previous VQA datasets, the questions are real-world image-independent queries that are more various and unbiased. Compared with previous image-retrieval or image-caption datasets, the ChiQA not only measures the relatedness but also measures the answerability, which demands more fine-grained vision and language reasoning. ChiQA contains more than 40K questions and more than 200K question-images pairs. A three-level 2/1/0 label is assigned to each pair indicating perfect answer, partially answer and irrelevant. Data analysis shows ChiQA requires a deep understanding of both language and vision, including grounding, comparisons, and reading. We evaluate several state-of-the-art visual-language models such as ALBEF, demonstrating that there is still a large room for improvements on ChiQA.

preprint2022arXiv

Quenching of Massive Disk Galaxies in the IllustrisTNG Simulation

A rare population of massive disk galaxies have been found to invade the red sequence dominated by early-type galaxies. These red/quenched massive disk galaxies have recently gained great interest into their formation and origins. The usually proposed quenching mechanisms, such as bar quenching and environment quenching, seem not suitable for those bulge-less quenched disks in low-density environment. In this paper, we use the IllustrisTNG-300 simulation to investigate the formation of massive quenched central disk galaxies. It is found that these galaxies contain less gas and harbor giant supermassive black holes(SMBHs) (above $ 10^{8}M_{\odot}$) than their star forming counterparts. By tracing their formation history, we found that quenched disk galaxies formed early and preserved disk morphology for cosmological time scales. They have experienced less than one major merger on average and it is mainly mini-mergers (mass ratio $<$1/10) that contribute to the growth of their SMBHs. In the Illustris-TNG simulation the black hole feedback mode switches from thermal to kinetic feedback when the black hole mass is more massive than $\sim 10^{8}M_{\odot}$, which is more efficient to eject gas outside of the galaxy and to suppress further cooling of hot gaseous halo. We conclude that kinetic AGN feedback in massive red/quenched disk galaxy is the dominant quenching mechanism.

preprint2022arXiv

Spatio-Temporal Federated Learning for Massive Wireless Edge Networks

This paper presents a novel approach to conduct highly efficient federated learning (FL) over a massive wireless edge network, where an edge server and numerous mobile devices (clients) jointly learn a global model without transporting the huge amount of data collected by the mobile devices to the edge server. The proposed FL approach is referred to as spatio-temporal FL (STFL), which jointly exploits the spatial and temporal correlations between the learning updates from different mobile devices scheduled to join STFL in various training epochs. The STFL model not only represents the realistic intermittent learning behavior from the edge server to the mobile devices due to data delivery outage, but also features a mechanism of compensating loss learning updates in order to mitigate the impacts of intermittent learning. An analytical framework of STFL is proposed and employed to study the learning capability of STFL via its convergence performance. In particular, we have assessed the impact of data delivery outage, intermittent learning mitigation, and statistical heterogeneity of datasets on the convergence performance of STFL. The results provide crucial insights into the design and analysis of STFL-based wireless networks.

preprint2022arXiv

Type-enriched Hierarchical Contrastive Strategy for Fine-Grained Entity Typing

Fine-grained entity typing (FET) aims to deduce specific semantic types of the entity mentions in text. Modern methods for FET mainly focus on learning what a certain type looks like. And few works directly model the type differences, that is, let models know the extent that one type is different from others. To alleviate this problem, we propose a type-enriched hierarchical contrastive strategy for FET. Our method can directly model the differences between hierarchical types and improve the ability to distinguish multi-grained similar types. On the one hand, we embed type into entity contexts to make type information directly perceptible. On the other hand, we design a constrained contrastive strategy on the hierarchical structure to directly model the type differences, which can simultaneously perceive the distinguishability between types at different granularity. Experimental results on three benchmarks, BBN, OntoNotes, and FIGER show that our method achieves significant performance on FET by effectively modeling type differences.

preprint2021arXiv

Adaptive Deconvolution-based stereo matching Net for Local Stereo Matching

In deep learning-based local stereo matching methods, larger image patches usually bring better stereo matching accuracy. However, it is unrealistic to increase the size of the image patch size without restriction. Arbitrarily extending the patch size will change the local stereo matching method into the global stereo matching method, and the matching accuracy will be saturated. We simplified the existing Siamese convolutional network by reducing the number of network parameters and propose an efficient CNN based structure, namely Adaptive Deconvolution-based disparity matching Net (ADSM net) by adding deconvolution layers to learn how to enlarge the size of input feature map for the following convolution layers. Experimental results on the KITTI 2012 and 2015 datasets demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve a good trade-off between accuracy and complexity.

preprint2021arXiv

Projective robustness for quantum channels and measurements and their operational significance

Recently, the projective robustness of quantum states has been introduced in [arXiv:2109.04481(2021)]. It shows that the projective robustness is a useful resource monotone and can comprehensively characterize capabilities and limitations of probabilistic protocols manipulating quantum resources deterministically. In this paper, we will extend the projective robustness to any convex resource theories of quantum channels and measurements. First, We introduce the projective robustness of quantum channels and prove that it satisfies some good properties, especially sub- or supermultiplicativity under any free quantum process. Moreover, we use the projective robustness of channels to give lower bounds on the errors and overheads in any channel resource distillation. Meanwhile, we show that the projective robustness of channels quantifies the maximal advantage that a given channel outperforms all free channels in simultaneous discrimination and exclusion of a fixed state ensemble. Second, we define the projective robustness of quantum measurements and prove that it exactly quantifies the maximal advantage that a given measurement provides over all free measurements in simultaneous discrimination and exclusion of two fixed state ensembles. Finally, within a specific channel resource setting based on measurement incompatibility, we show that the projective robustness of quantum channels coincides with the projective robustness of measurement incompatibility.

preprint2020arXiv

Controlling Cherenkov threshold with nonlocality

Cherenkov radiation is generally believed to be threshold-free in hyperbolic metamaterials owing to the extremely large photonic density of states in classical local framework. While recent advances in nonlocal and quantum effects extend our understanding of light-matter interactions in metallic nanostructures, the influence of nonlocality on threshold-free Cherenkov radiation still remains elusive. Here we theoretically demonstrate that the nonlocality provides an indispensable way to flexibly engineer Cherenkov thresholds in metallodielectric layered structures. Particularly, the nonlocality results in a lower-bound velocity cutoff, whose value is comparable to the electron Fermi velocity. Surprisingly, this lower-bound threshold can be significantly smaller than the classically predicted one if the metamaterial works around epsilon-near-zero frequencies. The capability to control Cherenkov thresholds opens numerous prospects for practical applications of Cherenkov radiation, in particular, for integrated free-electron radiation sources.

preprint2020arXiv

Effect of He on the Order-Disorder Transition in Ni3Al under Irradiation

The order-disorder transition in Ni-Al alloys under irradiation represents an interplay between various re-ordering processes and disordering due to thermal spikes generated by incident high energy particles. Typically, ordering in enabled by diffusion of thermally-generated vacancies, and can only take place at temperatures where they are mobile and in sufficiently high concentration. Here, in-situ transmission electron micrographs reveal that the presence of He, usually considered to be a deleterious immiscible atom in this material, promotes reordering in Ni3Al at temperatures where vacancies are not effective ordering agents. A rate-theory model is presented, that quantitatively explains this behavior, based on parameters extracted from atomistic simulations. These calculations show that the V2He complex is an effective agent through its high stability and mobility. It is surmised that immiscible atoms may stabilize reordering agents in other materials undergoing driven processes, and preserve ordered phases at temperature where the driven processes would otherwise lead to disorder.

preprint2020arXiv

Quantifying quantum non-Markovianity based on quantum coherence via skew information

Based on the nonincreasing property of quantum coherence via skew information under incoherent completely positive and trace-preserving maps, we propose a non-Markovianity measure for open quantum processes. As applications, by applying the proposed measure to some typical noisy channels, we find that it is equivalent to the three previous measures of non-Markovianity for phase damping and amplitude damping channels, i.e., the measures based on the quantum trace distance, dynamical divisibility, and quantum mutual information. For the random unitary channel, it is equivalent to the non-Markovianity measure based on $l_1$ norm of coherence for a class of output states and it is incompletely equivalent to the measure based on dynamical divisibility. We also use the modified Tsallis relative $α$ entropy of coherence to detect the non-Markovianity of dynamics of quantum open systems, the results show that the modified Tsallis relative $α$ entropy of coherence are more comfortable than the original Tsallis relative $α$ entropy of coherence for small $α$.

preprint2020arXiv

Surface Dyakonov-Cherenkov Radiation

Recent advances in engineered material technologies (e.g., photonic crystals, metamaterials, plasmonics, etc) provide valuable tools to control Cherenkov radiation. In all these approaches, however, the designed materials interact only with the particle velocity to affect Cherenkov radiation, while the influence of the particle trajectory is generally negligible. Here, we report on surface Dyakonov-Cherenkov radiation, i.e. the emission of directional Dyakonov surface waves from a swift charged particle moving atop a birefringent crystal. This new type of Cherenkov radiation is highly susceptible to both the particle velocity and trajectory, e.g. we observe a sharp radiation enhancement when the particle trajectory falls in the vicinity of a particular direction. Moreover, close to the Cherenkov threshold, such a radiation enhancement can be orders of magnitude higher than that obtained in traditional Cherenkov detectors. These distinct properties allow us to determine simultaneously the magnitude and direction of particle velocities on a compact platform. The surface Dyakonov-Cherenkov radiation studied in this work not only adds a new degree of freedom for particle identification, but also provides an all-dielectric route to construct compact Cherenkov detectors with enhanced sensitivity.

preprint2020arXiv

The formation of blue cluster in local Universe

It is well known from the Butcher-Oemler effect that galaxies in dense environment are mostly red with little star formation and the fraction of blue galaxies in galaxy groups/clusters also declines rapidly with redshifts. A recent work by Hashimoto et al. reported a local 'blue cluster' with high fraction of blue galaxies ($\sim 0.57$), higher than the model predictions. They ascribed this blue cluster to the feeding of gas along a filamentary structure around the cluster. In this work we use group catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) and the state-of-art of semi-analytic model (SAM) to investigate the formation of blue clusters in local Universe. In total, we find four blue clusters with halo mass $\sim 10^{14}M_{\odot}$ at $0.02 < z < 0.082$, while only the one found by Hashimoto et al. is in a filamentary structure. The SAM predicts that blue clusters have later formation time and most blue satellite galaxies are recently accreted. We conclude that the formation of blue clusters is mainly governed by newly accreted blue satellites, rather than the effect of large-scale environment.

preprint2020arXiv

The parameter-free Finger-Of-God model and its application to 21cm intensity mapping

Using the galaxy catalog built from ELUCID N-body simulation and the semi-analytical galaxy formation model, we have built a mock HI intensity mapping map. We have implemented the Finger-of-God (FoG) effect in the map by considering the galaxy HI gas velocity dispersion. By comparing the HI power spectrum in the redshift space with the measurement from IllustrisTNG simulation, we have found that such FoG effect can explain the discrepancy between current mock map built from N-body simulation and Illustris TNG simulation. Then we built a parameter-free FoG model and a shot-noise model to calculate the HI power spectrum. We found that our model can accurately fit both the monopole and quadrupole moments of the HI matter power spectrum. Our method of building the mock HI intensity map and the parameter-free FoG model will be widely useful for the up-coming 21cm intensity mapping experiments, such as CHIME, Tianlai, BINGO, FAST and SKA. It is also crucial for us to study the non-linear effects in 21cm intensity mapping.

preprint2020arXiv

What has quenched the massive spiral galaxies?

Quenched massive spiral galaxies have attracted great attention recently, as more data is available to constrain their environment and cold gas content. However, the quenching mechanism is still uncertain, as it depends on the mass range and baryon budget of the galaxy. In this letter, we report the identification of a rare population of very massive, quenched spiral galaxies with stellar mass $\gtrsim10^{11}{\rm~M_\odot}$ and halo mass $\gtrsim10^{13}{\rm~M_\odot}$ from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at redshift $z\sim0.1$. Our CO observations using the IRAM-30m telescope show that these galaxies contain only a small amount of molecular gas. Similar galaxies are also seen in the state-of-the-art semi-analytical models and hydro-dynamical simulations. It is found from these theoretical models that these quenched spiral galaxies harbor massive black holes, suggesting that feedback from the central black holes has quenched these spiral galaxies. This quenching mechanism seems to challenge the popular scenario of the co-evolution between massive black holes and massive bulges.

preprint2019arXiv

Dunkl-Supersymmetric Orthogonal functions associated with classical orthogonal polynomials

We consider the eigenvalue problem associated with the Dunkl-type differential operator (in which the reflection operator R is involved) L = dx R + v(x), (v(-x) = -v(x)), in the context of supersymmetric quantum mechanical models. By solving this eigenvalue problem with the help of known exactly solvable potentials, we construct several classes of functions satisfying certain orthogonality relations. We call them the Dunkl-supersymmetric (Dunkl-SUSY) orthogonal functions. These functions can be expressed in terms of the classical orthogonal polynomials (COPs). The key feature of these functions is that they appear by pairs, i.e., Qn(x) and Qn(-x) are both the eigenfunctions of L. A general formulation of the Dunkl-SUSY orthogonal polynomials is also presented.

preprint2019arXiv

Practical Issues of Energy Harvesting and Data Transmissions in Sustainable IoT

The sustainable Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a promising solution for the green living and smart industries. In this article, we investigate the practical issues in the radio energy harvesting and data communication systems through extensive field experiments. A number of important characteristics of energy harvesting circuits and communication modules have been studied, including the non-linear energy consumption of the communication system relative to the transmission power, the wake-up time associated with the payload, and the varying system power during consecutive packet transmissions. In order to improve the efficiency of energy harvest and energy utilization, we propose a new model to accurately describe the energy harvesting process and the power consumption for sustainable IoT devices. Experiments are performed using commercial IoT devices and RF energy harvesters to verify the accuracy of the proposed model. The experiment results show that the new model matches the performance of sustainable IoT devices very well in the real scenario.

preprint2018arXiv

DTER: Schedule Optimal RF Energy Request and Harvest for Internet of Things

We propose a new energy harvesting strategy that uses a dedicated energy source (ES) to optimally replenish energy for radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting powered Internet of Things. Specifically, we develop a two-step dual tunnel energy requesting (DTER) strategy that minimizes the energy consumption on both the energy harvesting device and the ES. Besides the causality and capacity constraints that are investigated in the existing approaches, DTER also takes into account the overhead issue and the nonlinear charge characteristics of an energy storage component to make the proposed strategy practical. Both offline and online scenarios are considered in the second step of DTER. To solve the nonlinear optimization problem of the offline scenario, we convert the design of offline optimal energy requesting problem into a classic shortest path problem and thus a global optimal solution can be obtained through dynamic programming (DP) algorithms. The online suboptimal transmission strategy is developed as well. Simulation study verifies that the online strategy can achieve almost the same energy efficiency as the global optimal solution in the long term.

preprint2018arXiv

Revisiting Transmission Scheduling in RF Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications

The transmission scheduling is a critical problem in radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting communications. Existing transmission strategies in an RF-based energy harvesting system is mainly based on a classic model, in which the data transmission is scheduled in a fixed feasible energy tunnel. In this paper, we re-examine the classic energy harvesting model and show through the theoretical analysis and experimental results that the bounds of feasible energy tunnel are dynamic, which can be affected by the transmission scheduling due to the impact of residual energy on the harvested one. To describe a practical energy harvesting process more accurately, a new model is proposed by adding a feedback loop that reflects the interplay between the energy harvest and the data transmission. Furthermore, to improve network performance, we revisit the design of an optimal transmission scheduling strategy based on the new model. To handle the challenge of the endless feedback loop in the new model, a recursive algorithm is developed. The simulation results reveal that the new transmission scheduling strategy can balance the efficiency of energy reception and energy utilization regardless of the length of energy packets, achieving improved throughput performance for wireless communications.

preprint2016arXiv

Bianisotropy and magnetism in plasmonic gratings

We present a simple design to achieve bianisotropy at visible wavelengths: an ultrathin plasmonic grating made of a gold grating covered by a thin flat layer of gold. We show experimentally and through simulations that the grating exhibits magneto-electric coupling and features asymmetric reflection and absorption, all that with a device thickness of a tenth of the operating wavelength. We compared the spectral results and retrieved the effective material parameters of different polarizations and devices. We show that both asymmetry and strong coupling between the incoming light and the optically interacting surfaces are required for obtaining asymmetric optical behavior in metasurfaces.

preprint2016arXiv

Generalised monogamy relation of convex-roof extended negativity in multi-level systems

In this paper, we investigate the generalised monogamy inequalities of convex-roof extended negativity (CREN) in multi-level systems. The generalised monogamy inequalities provide the upper and lower bounds of bipartite entanglement, which are obtained by using CREN and the CREN of assistance (CRENOA). Furthermore, we show that the CREN of multi-qubit pure states satisfies some monogamy relations. Additionally, we test the generalised monogamy inequalities for qudits by considering the partially coherent superposition of a generalised W-class state in a vacuum and show that the generalised monogamy inequalities are satisfied in this case as well.

preprint2016arXiv

Harnessing transformation optics for understanding electron energy loss and cathodoluminescence

As the continual experimental advances made in Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and cathodoluminescence (CL) open the door to practical exploitations of plasmonic effects in metal nanoparticles, there is an increasing need for precise interpretation and guidance of such experiments. Numerical simulations are available but lack physical insight, while traditional analytical approaches are rare and limited to studying specific, simple structures. Here, we propose a versatile and efficient method based on transformation optics which can fully characterize and model the EELS problems of nanoparticles of complex geometries. Detailed discussions are given on 2D and 3D nanoparticle dimers, where the frequency and time domain responses under electron beam excitations are derived.

preprint2016arXiv

Invisibility Dips of Near-Field Energy Transport in a Spoof Plasmonic Metadimer

Invisibility dips, minima in scattering spectrum associated with asymmetric Fano-like line-shapes, have been predicted with transformation optics in studying strong coupling between two plasmonic nanoparticles. This feature of strongly coupled plasmonic nanoparticles holds promise for sensor cloaking. It requires an extremely narrow gap between the two nanoparticles, though, preventing its experimental observation at optical frequencies. Here, the concept of spoof surface plasmons is utilized to facilitate the strong coupling between two spoof-localized-surface-plasmon (SLSP) resonators. Instead of observing in far field, the near-field energy transport is probed through the two SLSP resonators. By virtue of enhanced coupling between the two resonators stacked vertically, a spectral transmission dip with asymmetric Fano-like line-shape, similar to the far-field invisibility dips predicted by transformation optics, is observed. The underlying mode interference mechanism is further demonstrated by directly imaging the field maps of interfered waves that are tightly localized around the resonators. These near-field invisibility dips may find use in near-field sensing, on-chip switching, filters and logical operation elements.

preprint2016arXiv

Ordering states of Tsallis relative $α$-entropies of coherence

In this paper, we study the ordering states with Tsallis relative $α$-entropies of coherence and $l_{1}$ norm of coherence for single-qubit states. We show that any Tsallis relative $α$-entropies of coherence and $l_{1}$ norm of coherence give the same ordering for single-qubit pure states. However, they don't generate the same ordering for some high dimensional pure states, even though these states are pure. We also consider three special Tsallis relative $α$-entropies of coherence, such as $C_{1}$ ,$C_{2}$ and $C_{\frac{1}{2}}$, and show any one of these three measures and $C_{l_{1}}$ will not generate the same ordering for single-qubit mixed states. Furthermore, we find that any two of these three special measures generate different ordering for single-qubit mixed states.

preprint2016arXiv

Resolution-independent modeling of environmental effects in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation that include ram-pressure stripping of both hot and cold gas

The quenching of star formation in satellite galaxies is observed over a wide range of dark matter halo masses and galaxy environments. In the recent Guo et al (2011) and Fu et al (2013) semi-analytic + N-body models, the gaseous environment of the satellite galaxy is governed by the properties of the dark matter subhalo in which it resides. This quantity depends of the resolution of the N-body simulation, leading to a divergent fraction of quenched satellites in high- and low-resolution simulations. Here, we incorporate an analytic model to trace the subhaloes below the resolution limit. We demonstrate that we then obtain better converged results between the Millennium I and II simulations, especially for the satellites in the massive haloes ($\rm log M_{halo}=[14,15]$). We also include a new physical model for the ram-pressure stripping of cold gas in satellite galaxies. However, we find very clear discrepancies with observed trends in quenched satellite galaxy fractions as a function of stellar mass at fixed halo mass. At fixed halo mass, the quenched fraction of satellites does not depend on stellar mass in the models, but increases strongly with mass in the data. In addition to the over-prediction of low-mass passive satellites, the models also predict too few quenched central galaxies with low stellar masses, so the problems in reproducing quenched fractions are not purely of environmental origin. Further improvements to the treatment of the gas-physical processes regulating the star formation histories of galaxies are clearly necessary to resolve these problems.

preprint2016arXiv

Social influence makes self-interested crowds smarter: an optimal control perspective

It is very common to observe crowds of individuals solving similar problems with similar information in a largely independent manner. We argue here that crowds can become "smarter," i.e., more efficient and robust, by partially following the average opinion. This observation runs counter to the widely accepted claim that the wisdom of crowds deteriorates with social influence. The key difference is that individuals are self-interested and hence will reject feedbacks that do not improve their performance. We propose a control-theoretic methodology to compute the degree of social influence, i.e., the level to which one accepts the population feedback, that optimizes performance. We conducted an experiment with human subjects ($N = 194$), where the participants were first asked to solve an optimization problem independently, i.e., under no social influence. Our theoretical methodology estimates a $30\%$ degree of social influence to be optimal, resulting in a $29\%$ improvement in the crowd's performance. We then let the same cohort solve a new problem and have access to the average opinion. Surprisingly, we find the average degree of social influence in the cohort to be $32\%$ with a $29\%$ improvement in performance: In other words, the crowd self-organized into a near-optimal setting. We believe this new paradigm for making crowds "smarter" has the potential for making a significant impact on a diverse set of fields including population health to government planning. We include a case study to show how a crowd of states can collectively learn the level of taxation and expenditure that optimizes economic growth.

preprint2016arXiv

Spoof Plasmon Hybridization

Plasmon hybridization between closely spaced nanoparticles yields new hybrid modes not found in individual constituents, allowing for the engineering of resonance properties and field enhancement capabilities of metallic nanostructure. Experimental verifications of plasmon hybridization have been thus far mostly limited to optical frequencies, as metals cannot support surface plasmons at longer wavelengths. Here, we introduce the concept of 'spoof plasmon hybridization' in highly conductive metal structures and investigate experimentally the interaction of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) in adjacent metal disks corrugated with subwavelength spiral patterns. We show that the hybridization results in the splitting of spoof plasmon modes into bonding and antibonding resonances analogous to molecular orbital rule and plasmonic hybridization in optical spectrum. These hybrid modes can be manipulated to produce enormous field enhancements (larger than 5000) by tuning the separation between disks or alternatively, the disk size, which effectively changes the relative gap size. The impact of the radiation loss is considered to find out the optimum disk size that maximizes field enhancement capabilities. Our investigation not only extends the range of applicability of the hybridization model, but also provides insightful guidance to exporting the exciting applications associated with plasmon hybridization to lower spectral range.

preprint2016arXiv

Stopping Condition for Greedy Block Sparse Signal Recovery

For greedy block sparse recovery where the sparsity level is unknown, we derive a stopping condition to stop the iteration process. Focused on the block orthogonal matching pursuit (BOMP) algorithm, we model the energy of residual signals at each iteration from a probabilistic perspective. At the iteration when the last supporting block is detected, the resulting energy of residual signals is supposed to suffer an obvious decrease. Based on this, we stop the iteration process when the energy of residual signals is below a given threshold. Compared with other approaches, our derived condition works well for the BOMP recovery. What is more, we promote our approach to the interference cancellation based BOMP (ICBOMP) recovery in paper [1]. Simulation results show that our derived condition can save many unnecessary iterations and at the same time guarantees a favorable recovery accuracy, both for the BOMP and ICBOMP recoveries.

preprint2016arXiv

Transformation optics: a time- and frequency-domain analysis of electron-energy loss spectroscopy

Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and Cathodoluminescence (CL) play a pivotal role in many of the cutting edge experiments in plasmonics. EELS and CL experiments are usually supported by numerical simulations, which, whilst accurate, may not provide as much physical insight as analytical calculations do. Fully analytical solutions to EELS and CL systems in plasmonics are rare and difficult to obtain. This paper aims to narrow this gap by introducing a new method based on Transformation optics that allows to calculate the quasi-static frequency and time-domain response of plasmonic particles under electron beam excitation.

preprint2014arXiv

Game Theory, Statistical Mechanics and Income Inequality

The widening inequality in income distribution in recent years, and the associated excessive pay packages of CEOs in the U.S. and elsewhere, is of growing concern among policy makers as well as the common person. However, there seems to be no satisfactory answer, in conventional economic theories and models, to the fundamental question of what kind of pay distribution we ought to see, at least under ideal conditions, in a free market environment and whether this distribution is fair. We propose a game theoretic framework that addresses these questions and show that the lognormal distribution is the fairest inequality of pay in an organization comprising of homogenous agents, achieved at equilibrium, under ideal free market conditions. We also show that for a population of two different classes of agents, the final distribution is a combination of two different lognormal distributions where one of them, corresponding to the top 3-5% of the population, can be misidentified as a Pareto distribution. Our theory also shows the deep and direct connection between potential game theory and statistical mechanics through entropy, which is a measure of fairness in a distribution. This leads us to propose the fair market hypothesis, that the self-organizing dynamics of the ideal free market, i.e., Adam Smith's "invisible hand", not only promotes efficiency but also maximizes fairness under the given constraints.

preprint2014arXiv

Manipulating dc currents with bilayer bulk natural materials

The principle of transformation optics has been applied to various wave phenomena (e.g., optics, electromagnetics, acoustics and thermodynamics). Recently, metamaterial devices manipulating dc currents have received increasing attention which usually adopted the analogue of transformation optics using complicated resistor networks to mimic the inhomogeneous and anisotropic conductivities. We propose a distinct and general principle of manipulating dc currents by directly solving electric conduction equations, which only needs to utilize two layers of bulk natural materials. We experimentally demonstrate dc bilayer cloak and fan-shaped concentrator, derived from the generalized account for cloaking sensor. The proposed schemes have been validated as exact devices and this opens a facile way towards complete spatial control of dc currents. The proposed schemes may have vast potentials in various applications not only in dc, but also in other fields of manipulating magnetic field, thermal heat, elastic mechanics, and matter waves.

preprint2013arXiv

Harvesting Light with Transformation Optics

Transformation optics (TO) is a new tool for controlling electromagnetic fields. In the context of metamaterial technology, it provides a direct link between a desired electromagnetic (EM) phenomenon and the material response required for its occurrence. Recently, this powerful framework has been successfully exploited to study surface plasmon assisted phenomena such as light harvesting. Here, we review the general strategy based on TO to design plasmonic devices capable of harvesting light over a broadband spectrum and achieving considerable field confinement and enhancement. The methodology starts with two-dimensional (2D) cases, such as 2D metal edges, crescent-shaped cylinders, nanowire dimers, and rough metal surfaces, and has been well extended to fully-fledged three-dimensional (3D) situations. The largely analytic approach gives physical insights into the processes involved and suggests the way forward to study a wide variety of plasmonic nanostructures.

preprint2013arXiv

Surface Plasmons and Nonlocality: a Simple Model

Surface plasmons on metals can concentrate light into sub-nanometric volumes and on these near atomic length scales the electronic response at the metal interface is smeared out over a Thomas-Fermi screening length. This nonlocality is a barrier to a good understanding of atomic scale response to light and complicates the practical matter of computing the fields. In this letter, we present a local analogue model and show that spatial nonlocality can be represented by replacing the nonlocal metal with a composite material, comprising a thin dielectric layer on top of a local metal. This method not only makes possible the quantitative analysis of nonlocal effects in complex plasmonic phenomena with unprecedented simplicity and physical insight, but also offers great practical advantages in their numerical treatment.

preprint2013arXiv

The LAMOST Survey of Background Quasars in the Vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies -- II. Results from the Commissioning Observations and the Pilot Surveys

We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies with the LAMOST during the 2010 and 2011 observational seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available SDSS, KPNO 4 m telescope, XSTPS optical, and WISE near infrared photometric data. We present 509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 sq. deg from M31 to M33 along the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey datasets, and also 17 new quasars discovered in an area of ~100 sq. deg that covers the central region and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning datasets. These 526 new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to 3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62 and 139 known quasars in this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5 and 18.0 respectively, of which 5, 20 and 75 are newly-discovered. These bright quasars provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the ISM/IGM in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars are now known with locations within 2.5 deg of M31, of which 73 are newly discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant Stellar Stream, and hundreds behind the extended halo and its associated substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric reference frame to measure the minute PMs of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.

preprint2012arXiv

Deterministic preparation of Dicke states of donor nuclear spins in silicon by cooperative pumping

For donor nuclear spins in silicon, we show how to deterministically prepare various symmetric and asymmetric Dicke states which span a complete basis of the many-body Hilbert space. The state preparation is realized by cooperative pumping of nuclear spins by coupled donor electrons, and the required controls are in situ to the prototype Kane proposal for quantum computation. This scheme only requires a sub-gigahertz donor exchange coupling which can be readily achieved without atomically precise donor placement, hence it offers a practical way to prepare multipartite entanglement of spins in silicon with current technology. All desired Dicke states appear as the steady state under various pumping scenarios and therefore the preparation is robust and does not require accurate temporal controls. Numerical simulations with realistic parameters show that Dicke states of 10-20 qubits can be prepared with high fidelity in presence of decoherence and unwanted dynamics.

preprint2011arXiv

Generating coherent state of entangled spins

A coherent state of many spins contains quantum entanglement which increases with a decrease in the collective spin value. We present a scheme to engineer this class of pure state based on incoherent spin pumping with a few collective raising/lowering operators. In a pumping scenario aimed for maximum entanglement, the steady-state of N pumped spin qubits realizes the ideal resource for the 1 to N/2 quantum telecloning. We show how the scheme can be implemented in a realistic system of atomic spin qubits in optical lattice. Error analysis show that high fidelity state engineering is possible for N ~ O(100) spins in the presence of decoherence. The scheme can also prepare a resource state for the secret sharing protocol and for the construction of large scale Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki (AKLT) state.

preprint2011arXiv

Homogeneous optical cloak constructed with uniform layered structures

The prospect of rendering objects invisible has intrigued researchers for centuries. Transformation optics based invisibility cloak design is now bringing this goal from science fictions to reality and has already been demonstrated experimentally in microwave and optical frequencies. However, the majority of the invisibility cloaks reported so far have a spatially varying refractive index which requires complicated design processes. Besides, the size of the hidden object is usually small relative to that of the cloak device. Here we report the experimental realization of a homogenous invisibility cloak with a uniform silicon grating structure. The design strategy eliminates the need for spatial variation of the material index, and in terms of size it allows for a very large obstacle/cloak ratio. A broadband invisibility behavior has been verified at near-infrared frequencies, opening up new oppotunities for using uniform layered medium to realize invisibility at any frequency ranges, where high-quality dielectrics are available.

preprint2010arXiv

Cloaking of levitating objects above a ground plane

An approach to hiding objects levitating or flying above a conducting sheet is suggested in this letter. The proposed device makes use of isotropic negative-refractive-index materials without extreme material parameters, and creates an illusion of a remote conducting sheet. Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the performance of this cloak in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) cases.

preprint2010arXiv

Feedback control of nuclear hyperfine fields in double quantum dot

In a coupled double quantum dot system, we present a theory for the interplay between electron and nuclear spins when the two-electron singlet state is brought into resonance with one triplet state in moderate external magnetic field. We show that the quantum interference between first order and second order hyperfine processes can lead to a feedback mechanism for manipulating the nuclear hyperfine fields. In a uniform external field, positive and negative feedback controls can be realized for the gradient of the longitudinal hyperfine field as well as the average transverse hyperfine field in the double dot. The negative feedback which suppresses fluctuations in the longitudinal nuclear field gradient can enhance the decoherence time of singlet-triplet qubit to microsecond regime. We discuss the possibility of enhancing the decoherence time of each individual spin in a cluster of dots using the negative feedback control on the transverse nuclear field.

preprint2010arXiv

Macroscopic Invisibility Cloaking of Visible Light

Invisibility cloaks of light, which used to be confined to the imagination, have now been turned into a scientific reality, thanks to the enabling theoretical tools of transformation optics and conformal mapping. Inspired by those theoretical works, the experimental realisation of electromagnetic invisibility cloaks has been reported at various electromagnetic frequencies. All the invisibility cloaks demonstrated thus far, however, have relied on nano- or micro-fabricated artificial composite materials with spatially varying electromagnetic properties, which limit the size of the cloaked region to a few wavelengths. Here we report realisation of a macroscopic volumetric invisibility cloak constructed from natural birefringent crystals. The cloak operates at visible frequencies and is capable of hiding three-dimensional objects of the scale of centimetres and millimetres. Our work opens avenues for future applications with macroscopic cloaking devices.

preprint2009arXiv

A Rigorous Analysis of Plane-transformed Invisibility Cloaks

The electromagnetic characteristics of plane-transformed invisibility cloaks are quantitatively studied in this paper. We take elliptical cylindrical cloak as the example, and use an elliptical cylindrical wave expansion method to obtain the scattered field. It is demonstrated that an ideal elliptical cylindrical cloak is inherently visible. Noticeable field scattering and penetration will be induced when the cloak is exposed directly to an electromagnetic wave. However, as long as the cloak consists of a perfect electric conducting lining at the interior surface, perfect invisibility can still be achieved along the direction parallel to the major axis of the cloak for transverse magnetic illumination. Another plane-transformed cloak with a conical geometry is also proposed. The advantage of this cloak is that all the permittivity and permeability elements are spatially invariant while none of them is singular. Hence, it is easily realizable with artificially structured metamaterials. Finally, we show that this kind of cloak can also be used to cloak objects on a flat ground plane.